Display device and household appliance including the same

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a display device capable of preventing a buyer from arbitrarily switching a demo mode or a function control mode in an exhibition room, and a household appliance including the same. The household appliance includes a main body and a control device provided in the main body to control at least one function of the appliance, and at least one of a first display device electrically connected to the control device to display an operation state of the appliance controlled by the control device and a second display device to perform a demo function of the appliance is selectively mounted.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2008-0053632, filed on Jun. 9, 2008 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field[0003]Embodiments relate to a display device and a household appliance including the same, and, more particularly, to a display device, which is capable of performing a demo mode to present or advertize appliance information to buyers, and a household appliance including the same.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Generally, electric appliances used at home are called household appliances. Household appliances include but are not limited to a refrigerator, a washing machine, an air conditioner, a dish washer, a microwave oven and a cooking oven.[0006]In the initial stage of such household appliances, appliances including only simple control buttons such as an on / off button, an operation star...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0026]Each of the first and second display devices may further include a data input / output terminal to input / output data to / from the control device and a power input terminal to input power, and the data input / output terminal of the second display device may be disconnected such that the input / output of the data to / from the control device is prevented.

[0039]The sub controller may prevent data from being input / output to / from the control device.

[0040]According exemplary embodiments of a display device and a household appliance including the same, since a second display device to perform a demo function can be mounted in the household appliance, the control of the appliance is prevented when the appliance is exhibited for sale. Thus, power consumption at the time of the exhibition of the appliance can be reduced.

[0042]In addition, since it is possible to prevent a buyer from controlling the function of the appliance at the time of the exhibition of the appliance, it is possible to prevent the life span of the appliance from being shortened.

[0043]Since a memory for the demo function is provided in the second display device to perform the demo function, the capacity of the memory of the control device included in the main body can be reduced compared with the related art and thus the manufacturing cost of the control device can be reduced. Since the same control device can be mounted in the household appliance regardless of existence / nonexistence of the demo function, the control device can be widely used.

Problems solved by technology

Recently, as the functions of the household appliances become complicated, a difficulty arises when a seller knows various functions of the household appliances and explains the functions to buyers.

Therefore, if the mode for controlling the function of the refrigerator is selected and the control buttons of the function control mode are frequently operated, the durability of the appliance may deteriorate.

Since the function control mode of the appliance can be selected even in the exhibition room, power consumption is increased due to the motion of a compressor at the time of the function control mode.

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